Young Oncologists Corner

Oncology Fellowships

Invest in your future and the future of cancer care. Learn more about our Oncology Fellowship Programme.

Jobs in Oncology

The latest oncology jobs can be found here, including information on how to post a job.

Awards

ESMO Full, Honorary and Emeritus members: we are now accepting nominations for the 2015 ESMO Awards

Global Curriculum in Medical Oncology

ESMO/ASCO Recommendations for a Global Curriculum in Medical Oncology is now available in Serbian

Clinical Trials Workshops

ESMO fosters the advancement of cancer research by supporting clinical trials workshops to inspire young oncologists from different disciplines across the globe to become the next generation of active researchers.

ESMO Examination

ESMO members: are you planning on taking the ESMO examination this year? The late registration deadline is 22 July 2015

Recertification & CME

If you’ve already sat the ESMO exam, then take a look at our CME opportunities.

Women 4 Oncology

Discover the results of the ESMO Survey on the challenges faced by female oncologists

Patient Guides

Most ESMO Cancer Guides for Patients are now available in Greek. Download your copy now!

Personalised Medicine Explained

Video interviews and articles designed to help patients, policy makers and other non-medical professionals better understand the principles of personalised cancer medicine

Getting the Most out of Your Oncologist

Now available in Greek, our Guide for Patients with Advanced Cancer is designed for patients, their family members and oncologists.

Designated Centres of Integrated Oncology and Palliative Care

The ESMO Designated Centres of Integrated Oncology and Palliative Care accreditation programme recognises cancer centres which provide comprehensive services in supportive and palliative care as part of their routine care.

Treatment advances in head and neck cancer

Treatment choices based on risk factors in locally advanced head and neck cancers were considered in an educational session at Congress 2012

Dr Boudewijn Braakhuis from the University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, advised that improvements in therapy are desperately needed for this field, because only 40 50% of patients currently survive five years. "Biomarkers," said Dr Braakhuis, "are essential to develop new targeted treatments and improve survival through personalised therapy".

Potential biomarkers for head and neck cancers include loss of heterozygosity (LOH) and TP53 mutations. Furthermore, high EGFR expression and the emergence of skin rash are also believed to be predictive markers of cetuximab efficacy."Validation of putative biomarkers in clinical trials should now be mandatory." said Dr Braakhuis. “But the idea of ‘one-mutation-one-treatment’ is probably too simplistic. Information on all possible gene alterations in a given pathway and parallel pathways is likely to be needed to predict responses to a targeted therapy,” she said.

Optimisation of drug prescriptions for head and neck cancers were considered by Dr Lillian Siu from the Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Current treatments include sequential therapy (induction chemotherapy and concurrent chemo- radiotherapy), chemo-additive (adding another agent to standard chemotherapy), chemo- sparing (using another agent to replace or reduce chemotherapy), and radio-sparing (using an alternative treatment to reduce radiation doses).There is a need to achieve a balance between preserving high cure rates while reducing acute and late toxicities. “We need to understand the biology of head and neck cancers so that patients who relapse despite having low risk can be identified early,” said Dr Siu. Research, she added, should be targeted at primary and acquired resistance mechanisms.

Professor Jordi Giralt, from Vall d’Hebron University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain, advised that dose painting is a new strategy that can be used for optimal dose intensification. The technology involves the integration of multimodal imaging to optimise target volumes and prescription doses in head and neck cancers.
The value, said Professor Giralt, is reductions in toxicity that should deliver quality of life advantages, including recovery of saliva flow and improvements in swallowing.Controlled trials have shown dose painting to be feasible, with clinical trials now required to validate this strategy. Such approaches, said Professor Giralt, should pave the way for more effective and individualised treatments in head and neck cancers.